Prologue Terms Flashcards
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Psychology
The view that knowledge comes from experiences via the senses, and science flourishes through observation and experiment.
Empiricism
An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.
Structuralism
A school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.
Functionalism
Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base.
Basic Research
Scientific research that aims to solve a practical problem.
Applied Research
A branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well being.
Counseling Psychology
A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.
Clinical Psychology
A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy
Psychiatry
Historically significant perspective that emphasizes the growth potential of healthy people; used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth
Humanistic Psychology
The principle that among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.
Natural Selection
The differing complementary views, form biological to psychological to social-culture, for analyzing any given phenomenon.
Levels of analysis
An integrated perspective that incorporates biological psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.
Biopsychosocial approach
The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.
Nature-Nature Issue
